Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1887-03-28
CITY AND DISTRICT.
THE GROWTH OF HUMAN ARTS.
RrOfs MasOn's Talk to an Audience at
the National Museum.

FROM SIMPLE OCCUPATIONS.
The platform OF the lecture hall at the National
museum was covered Saturday afternoon with an
oou coilect1on OF things-skins, with picture
"HCing on Them, rude knives or agricultural in
struments, primitive musical instruments, and
otner OBJECTS intended to illustrate in q general
way Prof Otis I. Mason's lecture on ''The Natural
history OF Human Arts" This was The fourth Of
Inc series OF Saturday afternoon lectures under
Tue auspices OF the scientific societies. The attend
ance was so large that many were unable to obtain
seats The lecturer talked in an easy, converse
Iiohai manner, presenting, in way to be easily
graSped Dy the popular understanding, the whole
, sSaee 0l the science OF comparative technology
Ine STUDY or human arts. These arts he said,
Slow OuC OF human wants. AS the most general
Want Is food, from that want has grown many
artS, many occupations In which men and women
hnsaee ne pictured the Indian woman with her
Dash on her back, going to the field for acorns
onSn Cr4ssnng them, pounding them in mortar,
a ana In this simple way preparing food as one OF
ELABORATION OF HUMAN ARTS.
Inc hrst men fed themselves out OF the bountt-
full hand OF nature From that time to this day OF
roller mills and patent processes, he said, was a
long ana tedious journey. There were human arts
growing out OF the necessity for clothing. Then
0Gnsr arts were connected with the hab1tation and
WIN tne furniture OF the house. The first home,
ne sa1d was cave. He held up two rudely fash
Toned 6locEs of wood, which, he said, was all the
VI pf0mt1Sc mouse. Onc was the Dill
low oy night, the other the chair by day. These
Two simple objects, he said, were the parents of
an the furniture in the palatial mansions of to-
DAY. Another class Of arts grew out of the neces-
SHY OF some OF getting away from hOme-means OF
travelling. The snOwshOe, the birch bark canoe,
the dugout the trains Of palace cars, and the huge
come the arts Of commerce or exchange. Most
every part of the world has been ransacked to get
aomsrce Gunner. ana that ransaeking was called
communicating ideas, seen in its most primitive
form In the picture-wrtting on skins. Then this
vnncS Inag was a66reviated then came hero
alphabetical writing. Then there were many arts
practlced connected with amusementS. ALI peo-
anu Skipping ropes. Among all nations they
found circuses or theaters, parades banQuets, and
ceremonies. They could not know all
THE STORY OF PEOPLE,
or how they lived unless they studied their amuse
ments. Progressing, they came hext to the
esthet1c arts. These arts had their beginnings
among savageS One court OF the National Mu-
scum Is filled with baSketry and textile work of
savage women, and another with pottery. 1t could
be proved he thought, that all art began with
women. The decoration OF every piece Of pottery
was done by woman. In our city, he said, we
have gentleman devoting his whole life to un-
1Oolng the history OF aboriginal art, beginning
with the simple circle and angles, and proceeding
up to elaborate fretS and arabesque work. Prof.
Ma Mason remarked that his purpose was to interest
his hearers in the National Museum and IL he did
not succeed in getting them in love with some
corner or other Of the building, he failed in his
purpose For every one, there was in the museum
something connected with that which he loved
most. He spoke next Of the arts Of social life of
the arts Of the family and the community; the
he said, a thousand arts had collected. He could
spend an hour telling of the arts connected with
C0URTsH1P AND MARRIAGE.
The arts Of citizenship, and the arts OF religino
he next spoke of. He showed Buddhist prayer
Wheel fetiches, masks and other objects used by
ing briefly on each. Old fashioned museums, the
professor satd were mere collections OF traps Not
day passed, he said, but some one came into the
National Museum and asked to see the curiositfes
They want to see Guiteau's bones and the stuffed
alligator. II they were shown an Egyptian
mummy and told that 1t was Guiteau's remains
or an alligator was shown to them as the crOco-
ollie of the Niie they were satisfied. The spirit OF
this museum had gone far beyond that. When
one asked the director Of the museum what was
wanted for the museum, the reply was 'every-
thing" II they wanted TO write the history of
man, and OF human arts nothing would be left
out The science he spoke of aimed TO apply to
everything connected with human arts TO the
products Of human industry the same rigid laws
OF study as the botanist applied to his plants or
the animal the products OF human industry are to
the human mind. They are fossilized or Ossified
thoughts. the products Of orderly thinking minds.
study OF them ought to be just as much science
as the study OF bones, rocks, and plants. He de-
scribed briefly how the scientist worked Collecting
fan sorting ag his SO as to
gether, and then making his tnducuons Then he
showed the
GROWTH OF THE JACK-KNIFE
from simple piece OF stone, the aboriginal knife,
passing next to sharpened stone with bone for
q handle, then knife with an iron blade, down
to the modern pocket knife; this, he said, was
purely natural history study. He spoke Of the
evolution OF the locomotive and of the hoe. Then,
referring to the law known to biologists, that
notifications In one part by natural selection
meant notifications In all other parts he
claimed that this law was good also in the natural
history Of human arts In this connection he re-
ferred to what ne claimed were mistakes in the
treatment OF the abOngtnes, as lawmakers and
public officers did not regard this law OF mutual
NOTIFICATIONS In their attempt to change people
who lived as hunters into farmers. He spoke also
OF the changes made in arts by environment. He
Sketched, also, the growth Of religious cults or
creeds, from the animism Of simple-hearted saw
ages, to SptiSm, and to higher forms OF belief In
the science OF anthropology he said there was no
clergy or la1ty. They wanted each one to lay his
or her experience the altar OF that science. He
appealed in closing, to all to do something to aid
In Wr1t1ng the history OF human arts. A gentle
man connected with the Pennsylvania railroad, he
said, had undertaken to illustrate the growth OF
the steam locomotive; another gentleman had
undertaken to write the history OF time. No one,
ne suggested, had ever undertaken to form col
lection that would tell the history OF the needle.
The lawyers could write the history OF Law, and
the legislators OF law making.
Transfers Of Real Estate.